The Hon Rob Stokes MP - NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces

Rob Stokes is one of Australia’s most thoughtful and prescient politicians - with a passion for public policy and public service that has led him to one of the toughest portfolios around - as Minister for Planning and Public Spaces in Australia’s largest state, NSW.

Rob argues that Covid 19 is the greatest disruption to how cities and countries will function since the Spanish flu and the introduction of the motorcar. He says the heart of this disruption will be how Australia, and the global community of nations, chooses to manage global resources as the World addresses new and emerging geopolitical and environmental risks ahead.

The first ‘in person’ episode of Smarter Cities since March 2020 is a wide- ranging conversation that extends from cities and the environment to the future of education and to how we meet challenges ahead.